Saturday, December 28, 2013

DENGUE MOSQUITO......BEWARE

I have included this insect as it is the time of year when mosquitoes are once again very active and Australians are beginning to spend more time out of doors having BBQs or just enjoying the sunshine and warm summer days and evenings. Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on earth causing more deaths than any other animal on our planet. People have to be very careful not to get bitten as the diseases some of these mosquitoes carry can be very debilitating, even to the point of being life threatening.

The dengue mosquito (Aedes aegypti) belongs to the Order Diptera and Family Culcidae. It is an introduced species found in Queensland, and has also been known in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and southern New South Wales. I feel it is also now found in other parts of Australia as well.

It is a pest mosquito and can be a carrier of Dengue Fever, Murray Valley encephalitis. Ross River virus and of course malaria. The female mosquito is dark coloured with white markings on the back and white bands on the legs. The thorax is dark with a lighter curved marking on each side and two light stripes running down the centre. The size is 3-4mm in length.

Adult mosquitoes may be found near houses and will bite during the day or evening. It is the female that feeds on blood; the males feeds on the nectar of flowers. (I certainly prefer the male of the species in this instance).

The female lays her eggs in water. When first laid the egg are white but soon turn black. The larvae feed on bacteria in the water.

I am very fortunate that mosquitoes don't seem to like me very much and yet my daughter and, in particular, one of her daughters are always prone to being attacked and bitten by the little beasties. The three of us can sit together and they will be bitten and I won't. I sometimes feel as if something is hovering around my legs but no bites result. I have researched why this may be the case and I find that people with type O blood are more susceptible than those with type A while those with type B sort of fall in between A and B. I am sure my daughter and granddaughter are all type A the same as me so there must be more to it than that. I also found that the amount of carbon dioxide we breath out may also be an attractant to mosquitoes and also if one drinks beer. Neither of of we three drink beer so that rules out beer. Overweight people also tend to get bitten more (so 'they' say) and yet I know quite skinny people that also are bitten regularly. I feel there is a lot more work to be done by scientists before they find out the true reasons why some people's blood tastes delicious to mosquitoes while that of other people apparently does not. I just hope anyone who reads this manages to avoid mosquito bites this summer or, for that matter, at any time during the year.

14 comments:

My blood group is A minus and I am a mozzie magnet. Sigh. I can be savaged and the skinny one is left strictly alone. Which amuses him, and irritates me. Not only do the little blighters fang into me, I come up in large welts - which weep and itch. Even when I don't scratch them.

Mosquitos like sweet: I've read that adding vinegar to the daily diet can deter the little buggers, they don't like the way it affects the smell or taste of a person. I often drink vinegar and honey as a hot tea, also cold if I let it sit too long, and haven't been bitten in years. My ex, who rarely eats anything sweet is never bitten. As children, mum would rub us down with vinegar, even in the hair, before sending us out to play in the cooling dusk. We never got bitten.

Now there's a good tip for people prone to be bitten by mozzies. Rub vinegar on their arms and legs. I'll pass that on. I used to honey and cider vinegar but I've not done that for yonks. Maybe should get back on to it, not anti-mozzie but just 'cos it's good for one.

Hari OMI was shocked to find that mosquitoes have found their way into - and adapted - to the UK climate. There were always, 'midgies', this island's equivalent bitey nuisance, but no risk to health per se. Sigh. I had a bout of Dengue in Mumbai. Took a while to get over that one!! YAM xx

Phil was horrified to hear the mozzies have landed in the UK but he well remembers the midgies. He wonders if perhaps the bird population has changed so not so many insects being devoured by them. All these rotten fevers can be very debilitating. xx

Mozzies love my daughter. Just the other morning she woke up with massive white welts surrounded by red, just from mozzies. They're not so keen on me. Apparently high levels of vitamin D are a deterrent to midges (awful bitey things in Queensland) - perhaps it's a vitamin/mineral thing with mozzies too?

Oh poor girl. I remember being on holidays once and getting bitten by fleas and they left me with a large circle of bites that itched for days. We take Vit D now but before that neither Phil nor I were worried by the mozzies. It's just so weird.

About Me

I am 85 years of age, having been born in 1932. I am a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and a bit of an all round twit. Over the years I have done quite a lot of family genealogy and unearthed some family secrets which has been great fun.
I am married with a great husband (second time around has worked for me); I have a daughter and a son, four granddaughters and two grandsons, and three fantastic great-granddaughters plus a lovely step-great-granddaughter in Alaska whom I have never met although I have seen her on Skype. I have had two total hip replacements (June '08 and January '09) but as I have an extremely bad back (neck to tail) and a knee that won't behave, I still can't get about very much so am a stay at home. Maybe that is why I decided to take this drastic step and begin my own blog. Will I keep it up? Goodness alone knows, only time will tell but here goes anyway. I don't have a lot of followers but those I do have are very precious to me.